where we're joined

The architectural forms found in Japan are essentially pure structure.

Posts and beams supporting the roof and protecting and sheltering the occupants of the house are meticulously joined and finished without molding or applied trims.

Most structural components of the house are also the finish elements as well, so precise joinery and great care in assembly are necessary. 1

Scholars have long identified a Japanese influence on the American architect Frank Lloyd

Wright, even though he is well known for his insistence that his architecture and design were completely his own, without precedent.

Yet exam- ples of Japan- ese art and archi- tecture were so widespread in the United States by the time Wright began work in 1886 that it is very difficult to imagine how they could not have affected him.

Furthermore, he himself was a brilliant and prominent collector of Japanese art, especially prints.

After visiting Japan for the first time in early 1905, he wrote with knowledge and insight about Japanese art for the catalogue of an exhibition of his prints by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) held at the Art Institute of Chicago the following year, and in The Japanese Print: An Interpretation in 1912, a treatise on Oriental color theories, compositions, and symbolism that is central to his theory of ornament.

In both The Japanese Print and in an article o f 1908 entitled "In the Cause of Architecture," he described the relationship of Japanese art to his "organic" design, explaining that for the Japanese, design was a spiritual endeavor, the highest form of achievement, and the mother of all the arts and crafts.2

Timber Farmers Guild Conference: Experts on Japanese architecture will describe how it influenced architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Greene and Greene.3 (too bad it's 6 years ago--but there're some great photos.)

in either of these posts, can you tell who did what?
(long essay on japonisme in architecture, in french)

it is to laugh, and to wonder

greene and greene knew that their designs were influenced by the japanese--they had been forever altered in their career paths after seeing japanese work at the world expositions.

they studied japanese joinery, stone work, and even philosophy.

frank lloyd wright knew his work was influenced by the japanese. he knew their value of using native materials, he collected prints for years, and even made a pilgrimage to japan.

and yet still each is lauded for having, essentially, created a "new american architecture" independent of any historical standards.

Greene & Greene designs strongly influenced California’s archi- tectural heritage, their work has had international significance as well, inspiring countless architects and designers around the world through a legacy of extant structures, scholarly books and articles.

They were recognized by the American Institute of Architects in 1952 for contributing to a "new and native architecture" and are generally credited with fostering a new way of considering buildings and their furnishings as examples of artistic craft. 1

The Prairie School was a primarily residential architectural movement that began in Chicago yet rapidly spread across the Midwest. Ultimately its influence was felt around the world—most especially in north-central Europe and Australia....

A second factor nourishing the emergence of the Prairie School was the existence of a small group of dedicated individuals obsessed with the idea of creating a new American architecture, an architecture appropriate to the American Midwest and independent of historical styles.

The movement attracted more than a score of young men and women, the best known being Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. 2

The years between 1902 and 1909 were extremely busy for the firm, and the commissions (mostly residences) during these years are considered the finest examples of the Arts and Crafts style, the architectural movement the brothers are credited with fathering in the United States. 3

Japanese architecture, like other arts, is more preoccupied with form than with surface embellishment. This temple at Kamakura is an example of Japanese architecture from the 13th century.

Japanese exteriors and interiors stress space and form, with decoration and furnishing limited to essentials. the asymmetric, multipurpose arrangement of Japanese houses, and the simple rectilinear forms created by framing and wall panelling were influential on early modernist architects, notably Frank Lloyd Wright, and the de Stijl and Bauhaus designers.

The forms of Japanese architecture and furniture were also a factor in the early development of the Arts and Crafts style in England. 4

is it true what they say about hats?

i have read (though i can't find it just now) that the japanese hairstyles that were 'discovered' in prints and in visits to japan had a great influence in the hats of the day.

what is it with hats, and hair? why is it that century after century we do things with our hair or wear things on our heads that seriously increase its volume?

is it a frame for the face? a crown? an unconscious wish to appear threatening? a wish to enhance beauty?

in any case, at that point in time, japanese styles were influencing everything, so why not hats?

As the 19th century drew to a close the hats got big enough to use as fire buckets... (more)

immense, yard-wide hats, laden with plumes and feathers or with basket-loads of artificial flowers... (more)

(left: edouard vuillard, georges de feure, utagawa kuniyoshi, and again kuniyoshi. right: not known yet, kunisada utagawa, jules-alexandre grun, gabriele munter.)

the art of loie fuller reemerges

On Tuesday, April 3, 2007 the Westminster Arts Center at Bloomfield College will host the performance “Dance of the Elements,” a powerful celebration featuring dance pieces by Jody Sperling (Time Lapse Dance) which bring The Art of Loie Fuller to life. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm in the Van Fossan Theatre located on the corner of Franklin and Fremont Streets in Bloomfield, and will also include a lecture-demonstration.

Artistic Director Jody Sperling (Time Lapse Dance), a choreographer, performer and dance scholar gives a postmodern twist to vintage genres, from the mesmerizing spectacles of Loie Fuller, to circus and music hall entertainments. Sperling, who is based in New York City, has gained an international reputation as an expert on Loie Fuller and as an interpreter of Fuller's style of dancing. She combines research with imagination, to craft inventive, visually lush, and often humorous dances. Her luminous works in the style of early modern dancer Loie Fuller are a mainstay of the repertory; other dances draw inspiration from such eclectic imagery as sideshow contortion acts, partner acrobatics, hula-hooping, low-flying trapeze, burlesque, Degas ballerinas, magic-lantern shows, mermaid myths, and... (more)

for more about fuller, see our earlier post; also check out kora in hell about fuller and other dancers of that era.

swimming in memories

it occurs to me frequently that while i have a list of where to access japanese prints, i do not have one, exactly, for their western counterparts. my reasoning is that i more often do mention them in calendar and commentary. which i'll continue to try to do more and more.

i tried tracing the the artist of this harper's cover, and the closest i could come was that it

was very possibly will bradley. bradley has been mentioned here a couple of times, and certainly deserves a post of his own, which will come. in the meantime, i've provided a link to more than you could possibly read at one sitting, so i have faith in your patience.

on the right is a postcard, from japan--turn of the century. i haven't mentioned these before though because i wasn't sure how to place them, exactly. well, too bad. i still don't but they certainly deserve mention! there are so many wonderful ones.

done during the meiji era's mixing of cross- cultural influences, this body of work, available online at boston's mfa, demonstrates just how crossed that cultural moment was. the cards illustrate everything from blonds in art nouveau settings to travel cards of locales around japan, from deco to ukiyo-e. it's hard to tell who the work was made for, the new tourists, for overseas sales, or for domestic, but they do make clear that the days of two radically separate cultures were definitely over.

of the artist here, ichijo narumi, i could find nothing.

[turns out it's not will bradley. michael ward, magazineart.org personified, was kind enough to send me this signature that was too small to read on the reproduction. but which kerr it is, we have no idea. there are so many that i finally gave up on my google search. anyone know?]

don't miss magazineart.org (as i was just reminded by '100 years of illustration'), source of many years of wondrous magazine art.

grace

merci
florizel




(la seconde est keinen imao, le premier, je ne savent pas.)
[turns out to have been lalique! should have known. thanks again florizel, poet of images, for the info.]

time travel

yesterday turned up additional serendipitous time-travel as well. another alert, this time for 'japonisme,' landed me here. there, i learned of an artist who was new to me: louis anquetin.

so what does one do in such a case? why, a google image search, of course. and that turned me up here. what a wondrous site. (for an even fuller experience, go here.) in addition to introducing me to many wonderful new artists, this site taught me two things: 1.) there really were quite a number of painters at the time who didn't seem to be at all caught into the japonisme frenzy, and 2.) that adding their work to one's knowledge really begins to give a more full feeling for what it was like to be there then. (the site even compares paintings with photographs.)

anquetin was profoundly influenced by the new japanese influx, specializing in what he called 'cloisonnisme,' just another word for 'it,' i think.

others of the new artists i met were ramon casas,

giuseppe de nittisouge,

and federico zandomeneghi.


and yes, i do see diagonals, and blocks of color, and screens.... but what i see beyond these things is that moment, that moment when all of this was taking place, so thrilling, decorative, and profound.






if you go through all the images on the lautrec site, you will see many faces that are decidedly not the sarah bernhardts, nor the jane avrils. they are not necessarily having any fun. their hairdos occasionally look rather odd, as though they were trying the fashion because it was the fashion, and not because it suited them.

in short, in a way, you will see yourself. ordinary people of another time.

(anquetin, anquetin, casas,casas, de nittisouge, zandomeneghi)

internet as bible

it's the begetting i'm talking about. a google alert leads one to a new blog which lists another blog which thanks another blog which credits yet another. even word of mouth is slower.

grateful enough today to discover mountshang.






follow his begats, then follow hers, to learn something more about this set of lithographs, amour, by maurice denis, from a show on offerings from the influential art dealer and publisher vollard currently at the art institute of chicago.







vollard seems to be, perhaps, an equivalent to bing or watanabe in their passion to show, publicize, and inspire the artists (or craftsmakers) of the day.

not surprisingly, and in case you're interested, we've already talked about denis several times in this blog: here, here, here, and here.

mirroring the living

For Anne Gregory

'Never shall a young man,
Thrown into despair
By those great honey-coloured
Ramparts at your ear,
Love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.'


'But I can get a hair-dye
And set such colour there,
Brown, or black, or carrot,
That young men in despair
May love me for myself alone
And not my yellow hair.'

'I heard an old religious man
But yesternight declare
That he had found a text to prove
That only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.'

- WB Yeats

... or red, or black.... or white. i guess today's question, if there is one, might be are these stereotypes as well? was this one moment in art the last gasp towards a particularly defined femininity in the face of women's increasing self-determination? or do these images, like yesterday's, portray something cherished about "the other"?

(l: gekko ogata, guy rose, david gauld.
r: george henry, yoshitoshi taiso, chikanobu toyohara.)

i'm just saying....

same thing?































not the same thing?

holding the moon

been thinking a lot today, about the nature of holidays and the holidays of nature. in japan, the blossoming of the cherry trees calls for cherry-viewing parties at the highest levels.

in persia, the first day of the spring
is new year's day.

yes, we have nature-based holidays. our spring holidays are easter and passover. these are really celebrating the equinox as much as chanukah and christmas
celebrate the solstice.

but for the japanese, it's much more conscious. something about us being part of nature, nature being part of us, has not been lost.

van gogh may have been right, writing his brother about the regard with which the japanese hold a single blade of grass. the blossoming of the trees is cause for poetry.
this is ono no komachi writing a poem.
could this sad poem be it?

How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.




(Chikanobu Toyohara, Shunzan Katsukawa,
Nobukazu Watanabe, Arthur Wesley Dow,
Gesso Yoshimoto, poem from Ink Dark Moon, tr. Hirshfield/Aratani.)

the ver sacrum

Nothing Stays Put

by Amy Clampitt

In memory of Father Flye, 1884-1985


The strange and wonderful are too much with us.
The protea of the antipodes--a great,
globed, blazing honeybee of a bloom--
for sale in the supermarket! We are in
our decadence, we are not entitled.

What have we done to deserve
all the produce of the tropics--
this fiery trove, the largesse of it
heaped up like cannonballs, these pineapples, bossed
and crested, standing like troops at attention,
these tiers, these balconies of green, festoons
grown sumptuous with stoop labor?

The exotic is everywhere, it comes to us
before there is a yen or a need for it. The green-
grocers, uptown and down, are from South Korea.
Orchids, opulence by the pailful, just slightly
fatigued by the plane trip from Hawaii, are
disposed on the sidewalks; alstroemerias, freesias
fattened a bit in translation from overseas; gladioli
likewise estranged from their piercing ancestral crimson;
as well as, less altered from the original blue cornflower
of the roadsides and railway embankments of Europe, these
bachelor's buttons. But it isn't the railway embankments
their featherweight wheels of cobalt remind me of, it's

a row of them among prim colonnades of cosmos,
snapdragon, nasturtium, bloodsilk red poppies,
in my grandmother's garden: a prairie childhood,
the grassland shorn, overlaid with a grid,
unsealed, furrowed, harrowed and sown with immigrant grasses,
their massive corduroy, their wavering feltings embroidered
here and there by the scarlet shoulder patch of cannas
on a courthouse lawn, by a love knot, a cross stitch
of living matter, sown and tended by women,
nurturers everywhere of the strange and wonderful,
beneath whose hands what had been alien begins,
as it alters, to grow as though it were indigenous.

But at this remove what I think of as
strange and wonderful, strolling the side streets of Manhattan
on an April afternoon, seeing hybrid pear trees in blossom,
a tossing, vertiginous colonnade of foam, up above--
is the white petalfall, the warm snowdrift
of the indigenous wild plum of my childhood.

Nothing stays put. The world is a wheel.
All that we know, that we're
made of, is motion.


From The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Copyright © 1997

The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings

June 24, 2007 -
September 16, 2007
Sterling and Francine
Clark Art Institute
225 South Street,
Williamstown, MA

This unprecedented exhibition challenges the conventional, long-held understanding of Claude Monet’s artistic process and life. Drawing upon recently discovered documents and a body of graphic work largely unknown to the public and scholars alike, the exhibition reveals that Monet (1840–1926) relied extensively upon drafting in the development of his paintings in addition to painting his subjects directly. Monet has long been seen as an anti-draftsman, having denied the role of drawing in his working method in an effort to advance his public image as an Impressionist.

The Unknown Monet is the first exhibition to focus on the artist’s graphic works, including pastels, finished drawings, and sketch- books. The show sheds new light on several aspects of Monet’s creative process by presenting a significant body of these works, many of which have not been previously exhibited, alongside related examples of his work in oil. more

it never really occurred to me before how much of the color was determined by the medium. this reminds me of redon--something monet certainly never did before.

Lalique revolutionized jewelry and glass design.

By Amber Haq

Newsweek International

March 26, 2007 issue - Around the turn of the 20th century, the French artist, jeweler and glassware artisan René Lalique spent hours studying Japanese plants in the botanical gardens of Paris. Japanese horticulture was in vogue all over Europe, and Lalique labored relentlessly to complete intricate sketches of unfamiliar plants such as hydrangeas and chrysanthemums.

His aim: "To create something no one has ever seen before," he wrote.

Now visitors to the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris can witness those wonders. "The Exceptional Jewels of Lalique, 1890-1912" (through July 29) is the largest-ever exhibition of the French master's work, gathering together some 300 pieces from around the world.

Visitors are plunged into a magical universe of color and texture: orchids carved out of opal and jade; Japanese-style hair combs adorned with wasps and Egyptian beetles; bats and cats in lacquered enamel; dog collars embellished with pearls; the soft, fleshy female form metamorphosing into a dragonfly, or couched supine on a bed of moonstone. more

(many of these pieces can be seen regularly at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian.)

layers of meaning

i have heard, and read, many different explanations of the many layers worn under kimono. the first thing i was told, years ago, was that it was a way of establishing status.

more recently i have heard that each layer has very particular meaning, as does the particular design, color, etc. i do not exaggerate when i say i haven't the foggiest.

today i read that the many layers was a fashion in the heian era, and then was revived during the edo era. this latter is when utamaro kitagawa made this print.

correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems to me that the only times we in the west have had a particular reason for wearing many layers, other than when it was cold, or we were escaping a pogrom in the dead of night wearing as much as we could, is when we wore many layers of petticoats, and then surely for 'decency,' but yes, probably fashion as well.

and perhaps the jokesters and pundits made wisecracks about the petticoats as they did about the layers; i wouldn't be surprised.

some info on this can be found in a discussion about a woman of the court, but obviously this is not a courtier but rather a courtesan. you can see by her hair ornaments, even if you didn't know the image was called The courtesan Imose of the Yoshiwara House.

and for the regency fashion plates, see cathy decker's fascinating pages. and pray these clothes never come back in style.

from Spring Day

Bath

The day is fresh-washed and fair,
and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus
in the air.

The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water
in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish- white. It cleaves the water
into flaws like a jewel, and cracks it to bright light.

Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and dance, dance,
and their reflections wobble deliciously over the ceiling; a stir of my finger
sets them whirring, reeling. I move a foot, and the planes of light
in the water jar. I lie back and laugh, and let the green-white water,
the sun-flawed beryl water, flow over me. The day is almost
too bright to bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day.
I will lie here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots.

The sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is
a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air.

--Amy Lowell

(mathews; mucha; will source others later)
[note: somehow the images disappeared from this post completely so i put them back. now the first ones will probably come back and there'll be two. i'll come back and fix it again.]

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

(carl moll; kawase hasui; henri riviere --thanks for the reminder, green tea--; hiroshige ii utagawa)

can't jump, either

i never noticed this consciously before, but it seems white people haven't had much in the way of bold, colorful pattern in their textiles (other than perhaps scandinavia?) until exposure to the fabrics from japan. at least the ones in the prints.

i'm not crazy about raoul dufy's paint- ings; grandma dee had a print of one over her sofa and that seemed just about right. but when i discovered his fabric design recently i loved them! while these are slipping towards the fauve/matisse-y era of western art, they wouldn't have happened at all without the required inspiration.

perhaps these were completed during his early years, while he worked in a museum, before he really found his painting style. but for me they are some of the most wonderful fabric designs of the era, and i'm glad he did at least these.

gakutei yashima lived from 1788 to 1868. he was also a poet and often included his poems in his paintings.

that line

Lucien Achille Mauzan dropped his first name somewhere along the line and went by Achille. He was considered a master of zany caricature and shocking juxtapositions.

Strongly influenced by Cappiello, he obviously agreed with the latter's statement that "Surprise is the foundation of advertising; it is its necessary condition."

Mauzan was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905.

He made several important posters for the Italian film industry in Turin, and then went to work at Ricordi from 1912 to 1917.

He is known for his posters of the war, and afterwards he worked for the Maga agency in Milan, and then established his own company. He also taught, thereby establishing poster artists influenced by him!

Many of his greatest works were created in Argentina where he worked from 1926 to 1932. In all, Mauzan published over 2000 posters. They're not all available, but quite a few are. Little online talks about the man himself, but he at least is not lost to obscurity.

european cult of things japanese

the european cult of things japanese was more than a mere exotic fad, as the results were more far-reaching than those arising from a simple love of novelty.

fashion and its accessories acquired a new importance in europe though the general enthusiasm for japanese culture. women wore long, narrow skirts with flounces, which in outline closely resembled the obi.

people tripped around the streets of paris as if they had just stepped out of the yedda ballet--which had its first performance in 1879.



the formal way of moving the hands and feet and the kinked body posture, together with the costly kimono-like clothes of the ladies of the time, exuded a mysterious, magical aura of oriental sumptuousness.





far eastern modes were like an intoxicant. the moment of cultural balance, so to speak, between japan and europe had arrived. around 1900 women appeared in theatres with voluminous head adornments, decorative combs, hair-grips, and hairpins along japanese lines.

these would be set in tall coiffures, equally influenced by oriental theater, ballet and operetta. from japonisme, by siegfried wichmann





(edo comb; vever; edo comb; pinder, bourne, & co.; durand art glass, vineland flint glass works; edo-era comb; edo era comb; max kuehne.)

the begetting of beauty

and hokusai found a view of fuji at hodogaya with twisted trees and twisted men, all looking in different directions

and riviere saw trees this way after seeing hokusai

and lalique saw trees and dragonflies

and mucha saw sycamore leaves like dragonflies

and they both saw green women with green breasts and toothy wing-like projections coming from their shoulders

and thus seeds and insects and twisted beings became woven into the new beauty that this synthesis was creating.

p.s. mucha imagined the jewelry and fouquet made it.

looking at it from the other direction....

how do you see these woodblock prints, particularly when compared with the others i've posted (and i have posted the work of this artist before), or that you've seen elsewhere?

does it make any difference when you read this?: "Mitsukoshi Gonomi; Miyako no Nishiki" (Brocades of the Capital). "The Seasons and Their Fashions,No.8: Autumn. "A Walk to a Country-cottage". This series of 12 designs was commissioned by Mitsui Clothing Store. The Mitsui group (It has two well-known subsidiaries today. Mitsukoshi department store and Mitsui-Sumitomo Bank) was originated from the large dry goods store, Echigoya founded in 1673. It changed its name to "Mitsui Gofuku" in 1893. In order to promote its new image, they commissioned this delightful 12 family portraits to Toshikata. Mitsui Clothing Store changed its name again to "Mitsukoshi" in 1904. They made another edition, this time under the name "Mitsukoshi". The edition by "Mitsukoshi" was featured in the reference book of the Muller Collection.1

it's not an original question, i know, but i'll ask it anyway-- is art made for hire by a department store or bicycle manufacturer, less art than what's made for a samurai or king, or from one's heart?

the whole series is here.

i just realized what the question also is: do the japonese see these woodblock prints differently, knowing they were commissioned for trade?

and furthermore....

i just came across this quote and i thought it went along with the previous post so well that i thought i'd just put it up now, rather than waiting.

'one of the more recent phenomena typical of the present age, in which art and craft have become reunited after all too long a separation, is the modern bazaar of arts and crafts, an unusual combination resulting in a hybrid establishment, somewhere between an art dealer's and an emporium stocking luxury items as well as consumer goods of a practical nature, owned and run by people who usually represent a peculiar blend of connoisseur, artist, art critic, patron and businessman in the most refined sense of the word.' --max osborn, la maison moderne, 1900

the grace of questionable art

in addition to importing japanese paraphernalia into the newly emerging western art and design, aesthetical ethics were being affected as well.

when you think of toulouse lautrec, do you think 'commercial artist' or 'fine artist'? what about mucha? can he be called a 'real artist' if he primarily did 'posters'?




while i'm not really knowledgable about the present-day art scene, it seems to me that the worlds of 'commercial art' and 'fine art' are held at a conscious distance. but what of the past; has it always been true?







what about western painters who careers depended on patronage from the king? what was never painted, because it might upset the patron? in japan as well, what of these printmakers whose livelihood ended as the shogunate, source of many patrons, was dismantled?

we've discussed, here, earlier, the idea that that japanese infuse all they touch with the consciousness of art, so does this mean they made no such distinctions? and is this something that flowered in this era in the west as well?

(i have no artist names for these posters, but found them all, via bibliodyssey, here. just answer me one question, though: what does the congo have to do with the woman in the japanese costume, or the chinese hunters?)

krem de la krems

KREMS, AUSTRIA.- As its first major show of 2007, the Kunsthalle Krems presents an outstanding and comprehensive exhibit of Japanese art of the Meiji-era as well as European Japonism which followed in its wake. These two parallel phenomena are in the focus of attention of “Japan”, showcasing the incredible craftsmanship of Japanese Ukyo-e and applied arts while carving out its close ties to the roots of European and particularly, Austrian modernity. (more)

(painting by van gogh)

the rose

many people have heard of charles rennie mackintosh and why not? with his wondrous designs, from watercolor to architecture, we still thrill and delight to his work.

but fewer have heard of dard hunter, whose sweep was more narrow, perhaps, but no less profound.

i can find no record of the two ever having met, but we still see from both what is often called 'the scottish rose.' mackintosh was indeed scottish, but hunter was from ohio, and though he did study in europe, i also find no men- tion of him visiting scotland.



they both, however, worked in a time when artists the world over were learning to see in new, simplified ways from seeing the work of the japanese for the first time.





and, as you can see from this 1920s kimono, the japanese were learning back.

for more dard hunter designs:

turning stone & metal to light

René Lalique:

BIJOUX D'EXCEPTION

Du 7 Mars au 29 Juillet 2007

MUSEE DU LUXEMBOURG

the best images i found for it are here.

is it not just..... astonishing?

milady's fancy

the cleveland museum of art has put together a lesson plan about fans in japan:

• Fan-- a visual symbol of a person’s profession or rank in society
• Folding fans—thought to have been invented in Japan for imperial ceremonial use
• Hiogi—a wedge-shaped or crescent folding fan with wooden blades
• Komori ogi—literally “bat fan,” a folding fan made of paper
• Ogi-e—fan painting
• Uchiwa—a round fan

• Fans have long played an important role in Japan where they were carried by both men and women. In addition to performing the practical function of cooling the air and shooing away insects, they were an indication of rank and status; the fan carried by a courtier would be different from that of a samurai warrior or a Zen tea master.

• The uchiwa, or round flat fan, is believed to be the earliest form and to have been imported originally from China.

• The folding fan, hiogi, is thought to have been invented in Japan in the 7th century and was initially reserved for the sole use of the emperor in performing court ceremonies. It was made from slender wooden blades fastened securely at one end with threads running through holes in the other end so that it could be spread open in a radiating arch.

• The earliest wood fans were undecorated. Later fans were made of paper and silk enhanced with calligraphy or painting.

• The use of fans became gradually more widespread and spread through all levels of society.


• The union of function with beauty, which is one of the benchmarks of Japanese
aesthetics, is particularly apparent in the creation of fans. Painters used their
distinctive shapes to create individual artistic expressions in ink or color.

• The oldest folding fans in existence date from the end of the 12th century. Since most fans were essentially items of everyday use, they were discarded when worn out, broken, or replaced. Later on, however, many famous artists began to paint
fans, which have been prized and preserved by collectors.

• The use of fans has long been represented in Japanese art and literature; the first literary mention of the folding fan appears in an 8th-century poem and the epic tales of the Heian period, The Tale of Genji and the Tales of Ise, make frequent references to them. The use of fans is frequently depicted on both hanging scrolls and folding screens.

• Although fans are generally associated with Asia, they inspired many 19th-century Western artists to create their versions.

• Fans are often given as gifts or as tokens of esteem.

(you know that second-to-last one really wants a decent explanation!)


(william chase; kunisada, ogi-fan shape inset by hiroshige; advertising fans for sarah bernhardt's favorite powder; kunisada utagawa's fan-seller; from ebay; more uses of japanese imagery for advertising purposes; tessai tomioka; aesthetic japonisme; one in a long series of fan illustrations bound into manga by many noted japanese artists; from designer poiret; and another fan design.)

boekbinders, boeklovers, boeksellers, all

for theorist, bibliophile, and bookarts, the jugendstil stylings of theo molkenboer. (click 'vaste tentoonstelling,' then 'overzicht.') and for everyone else for whom books will always "still exist."

et peut-être un autre

Der 'Jugendstil' wurde benannt nach der seit 1896 in München erscheinenden Zeitschrift »Jugend«, die diese Stilrichtung propagierte. Ziel des Jugendstils war die Erneuerung der angewandten und bildenden Künste, wobei die sinnliche Ausstrahlung und die künstlerische Fantasie im Vordergrund standen.

Typisch für den Jugendstil sind dekorative, 'fließende', der Pflanzenwelt entlehnte Ornamente. Bedeutende Vertreter der Kunstrichtung, die in Frankreich 'Art Nouveau' und in England 'Modern Style' hieß, waren u.a.: Henry van de Velde, Aubrey Beardsley, Peter Behrens, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Louis Comfort Tiffany und Gustav Klimt.1

the smaller arts I

i discovered a blog today that was new to me,

and filled with wonders.

how could i have forgotten?

bjo nordfeldt

times and tides

Van Gogh might have been inspired not only to contrast the vivid blue of the water and the yellow of the bridge, but also to identify the Japanese climate with the Midi de France, by the following passage on Monet that Théodore Duret published in his Critique d’Avant garde:

It was not until the Japanese albums came into our hands that painters could juxta-
pose on the canvas a roof of audacious red, a yellow road, and the blue of water.

Before the model was provided by the Japan- ese, it was impossible... Every time I
contemplate the Japanese albums, I say to myself, yes, it was just in that way that
nature appeared to my eye, in a luminous and transparent atmosphere. . . without attenuation or gradation, [just as] in the Midi of the France, where every color appears glaring and intense in summer.1

so i am left wondering: had the different styles developed from different technologies or different perceptions?, different philosophies, different values, or some reason i'll never understand?

(hokusai, bilibin, courbet, kunisada)

les fleurs de mal

'contemporary criticism of [charles] meunier was mixed.

although most observers found him talented, innovative, and instinctive, he offended contemporary bibliophiles by producing vast numbers of covers containing emblematic and pictorial themes, often thought to be gaudy and crudely executed commercial ventures pandering to the tastes of the period's bourgeoisie.




his output was prodigious and he moved with ease between styles and periods, a fact which further offended purists who felt that his talent lay primarily in the creation of half-bindings with decorative spines.'

-- art nouveau and art deco bookbinding, duncan & de bartha

this story sounds sadly familiar....


also, it should be noted, i was unable to find anywhere what if any relationship existed between charles meunier and henri meunier.

the crane wife

a japanese fairy-tale with a thousand variations goes like this:

a lonesome farmer was walking through the forest one dark and snowy night when he heard a rustling just off his path. there he found a wounded crane.

he took the crane home and nursed it back to health. by spring the crane was well enough to set free. it made the man feel sadness and joy at the same time, watching the crane fly.

shortly before the summer season began, a young woman came to the farmer's village, and soon the two were in love and became married.

the next two years brought a terrible drought, and the farmer was distraught for his wife and himself. his wife then told him of her knowledge of weaving.

she wove such lustrous fabrics that they never came back home once they'd been to market; everyone wanted them. the farmer was delighted. but there was one catch. his wife told him he must never never view her weaving. and he promised.

time stretched on and for three years the farmer tended to his farming, loved his wife, and became a happy man. he wasn't one to question. but other farmers in the town questioned him about his wife, her weaving. how did she make these fabrics? their wives wanted to know! eventually the farmer began to wonder as well.

one afternoon he returned home from the fields earlier than expected, tiptoed into the house, and quietly lifted the curtain behind which his wife's loom was to be found. and there he saw a beautiful white crane, and beside her a basket of feathers for the weaving.

the next day, the man was alone again; he knew the secrets, and they were worth nothing to him at all.

(paul bruno; ludwig hohlwein; fumeroy; ohara koson.)